General: Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is a fairly large, upright, brushy shrub with upright stems and blue green leaves divided into three lobes at the tip. Flowerheads are small and borne along the upper stem.
Big Sagebrush is one of the dominant shrub species in the Great Basin Desert, and it extends into the Mojave Desert at higher elevations and is a fairly common component of mountain communities in drier areas in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland), Transition (Yellow Pine), and Canadian (Pine-Fir Forest) life zones.
There are three subspecies of Big Sagebrush. Wyoming Big Sagebrush is our standard sagebrush of big, open valleys with a rounded top. Basin Big Sagebrush is a very tall plant of fertile soils with a distinct trunk, and Mountain Big Sagebrush of higher elevations is smaller with a flattish top. |